Where We Are Now
by Raindrop Ninja
Summary: Ichigo, who is now 17 and living on her own in Japan, thinks about all of her friends and all of the things she went through with them. Later the same night, she is visited by the one she missed a lot more than she ever knew...    A tribute story to 9/11


Here's a little oneshot that just popped into my head while listening to music. It's pretty much for the anniversary of 9/11. I would have posted it then, but my mom, my dad and my older brother all kicked me off the computer. **Important:** This takes place after TMM ends. NO A LA MODE. Ichigo can still transform, though. But I am pretty sure that won't be playing a part in this story. Oh and one more thing! Here's a little translation that might help.

Ogenkide ne = Take care (used when the speakers are not likely to see each other again for a long time)

Anyway, please enjoy! Review, too! :3 REVIEWERS GET COOKIES! EVERYBODY LIKE COOKIES? GOOD! IF YOU DON"T LIKE COOKIES, I HAVE CINNAMON ROLLS AND CAKE, TOO! :D

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Ichigo yawned. Looking at her clock she noticed with a vague awareness that it was about 10:00 in the morning. Thankful that it was a Sunday, she slowly got up from her soft bed. After sifting through her dresser, she decided to wear her new sundress. It was a short, cute dress that stopped just above her knees, and it had a pink and white checkered pattern with little strawberries dotted all over it. Her hair had grown to the middle of her back since she had left Tokyo, and she pulled it back in a simple ponytail. Walking out of her bedroom, she crossed her small apartment and went over to the door. After slipping on her brown sandals, she grabbed her shoulder purse and left.

Deciding to walk today, Ichigo headed down the street towards the downtown area of the city. Despite being smaller in size, the houses and shops still reminded her very much of her home, Tokyo. She smiled lightheartedly. She missed Tokyo, and her family and friends. However, they had all gone their separate ways after the final battle. Mint had become the star of a touring ballet group. Pudding had left her little brothers and sister in the care of their daycare sensei and traveled back to China to study martial arts with her father. Zakuro, of course, had continued to stay with her modeling agency, and traveled to different places for her job. Lettuce had stayed in Tokyo to study and become a professor in marine biology. And Ichigo, herself, though she had stayed in Japan, had moved to another city to seek different educational opportunities.

Ichigo shook her head. "I miss everyone….." 'Even Kisshu and his friends…' She felt a bit surprised, but far less so than she would have 4 years ago back with her friends. She had learned to just accept her feelings, rather than wonder why she was feeling them. "It would be nice to see them all again. I wonder how they're all doing? And Kisshu, I wonder if his people are faring well now that they have the Mew Aqua?"

Looking around as she walked, Ichigo saw many different shops with hundreds of different wares. She didn't enter any of them, just slowly walked and looked at the different things on display in the shop windows. After walking around, bored, for about thirty minutes, she finally walked into a little coffee shop. She bought a small mint tea and a blueberry muffin, and walked back outside to sit at one of the little sidewalk tables.

Sipping her tea, Ichigo was reminded of Mint. She smiled fondly as she remembered how her azure-haired friend would always tell her what to do, sitting and drinking her tea all the while. As she nibbled the muffin, the taste faintly reminded her of Akasaka-san's cooking. Though, granted, nothing could ever come close to that. Not even her mother's cooking had ever tasted quite as good as a cake or pastry prepared by him.

It was about 11:00 by the time Ichigo finished her improvised breakfast, and since she had nothing to do, she decided to kill time and go see a movie. She didn't really pay attention to what movie she paid for; she just needed something to ward off the boredom that seemed to be consuming her today. The movie, which turned out to be some sort of romance flick, sated her boredom for a few hours. The only thing she really remembered of the movie was that the main character had some sort of obsession with cats.

Cats….and romance….

"Masaya….." Ichigo smiled as she thought of the boy who she had run after for so long. He, too, had gone his separate way and left to study abroad. She wouldn't be seeing him again for a very long time.

Flashback

Ichigo felt her eyes brimming with tears as she reached out her hand to clasp it in Masaya's.

"How long will you be gone?" She asked as she felt a single tear slip down her face. Masaya looked at her kindly.

"For a while, Ichigo. A very long while." Ichigo felt a few more tears escape as she heard this.

"Alright. Then, I guess this is goodbye." She gently let her hand slip from his. "Ogenkide ne, Masaya."

"Ogenkide ne, Ichigo." With that, the door to the train closed, and as it left, it took with it Ichigo's one root to sanity as a Mew Mew.

End Flashback

Ichigo smiled wider as she thought of all those times she had seen Ryou doing his best to hide the tension he felt when he was around Masaya. He had played it cool, of course, but she could totally tell, and she had always wondered what was wrong with him. It was only later that she figured out that his tension came from nothing other than jealousy. Over none other than herself. Ichigo blushed for probably the billionth time since becoming a Mew Mew.

As she walked back home, a small bookstore caught her attention. It was a quaint little place, with cute little dolls accenting it in different places. It instantly reminded her of Lettuce. Everything about the shop told her that Lettuce would have loved the place. Entering, she looked around and found two books, one about some sort of complicated science, and the other about marine life. She bought the books, along with a little monkey doll, and walked out. She remembered how fond of Pudding Lettuce had been, and the monkey seemed like it would be perfect. The other book, she wasn't sure what had made her buy that. It reminded her of someone else…certainly she had not bought the book for herself; she didn't understand any of it. Heck, the only thing she could really understand was the cover. But still, she wasn't sure who it reminded her of. Oh, well. For now, she would keep that book until she remembered who it was that she was so sure would be able to use it. Ichigo continued her walk home, with the intention of mailing the marine life book and the monkey doll to Lettuce.

Though Ichigo had been thinking of Lettuce when she bought the doll, the small figure had reminded her of Pudding. Her young friend and the youngest member of the Mew Mews had always been so lighthearted and energetic. Her unfailing friendliness and positive attitude always helped everyone else out when they were in an unsure situation. She had befriended one of the aliens, for goodness sake. That wasn't an incredibly easy thing to do. And, she had even gotten through to the seemingly most impenetrable member of the Mew Mews, Zakuro. Yep, that little girl truly was a guiding flame in the darkness.

'Hmm, while in the subject of Zakuro, I wonder where she is? And how she is?' Ichigo pondered this as she continued to walk. Zakuro, the purple wolf had always seemed so calm and unbreakable, yet she had her sensitive moments. Ichigo had seen for herself.

Flashback

Ichigo hurried toward the city center, taking a back route so she would have a small advantage of surprise. A Chimera Animal had appeared and was wreaking havoc. As she ran past the church, Ichigo stopped when she noticed the door had been left open. Something inside of her made her walk over to the door, trying to be quiet at the same time. Since she had already transformed, it was a bit hard to do with the bell on her tail and all, but she managed.

As she neared the church's entrance, she heard muffled sobs. Peeking around the doorway, she saw the silhouette of her dear friend, framed by colorful light filtering through the stained glass windows. Looking at Zakuro's grieving form, Ichigo felt shocked and sympathetic. She quickly left.

'We can handle this one on our own this time. Zakuro needs some time by herself.'

End Flashback

Toward the edge of town, yet another shop caught her attention. This time, it was a candy shop. Once again, Ichigo was reminded of Pudding. She couldn't resist going in, and she bought some candy drops for her young friend. She would mail those too. 'Hm, on second thought, I want some!' She thought. So she bought some for herself, too. It was only after exiting the candy store that she realized that she had bought two bags of Pudding's favorite kind of candy drop. Which happened to be Ichigo's least favorite kind of candy drop.

Sighing, she thought, 'Oh well. I'll find something to do with those extra ones. But I can't give them to Pudding. She'd be bouncing of the walls for three days, and I'm sure her father would just love me for that.' Ichigo then stopped as she realized she had arrived back at her apartment. Looking around she noticed that the sun was beginning to set. She walked back into the residential building.

Once in her small apartment, Ichigo immediately took a shower. After, she went back to her room and put on a pair of white PJ pants with strawberries on them. She then put on a matching tanktop. She stepped into a pair of soft slippers and took her hair out of its ponytail, letting it fall loosely to the middle of her back. After getting herself a bowl of ice cream from the freezer, she left, locked the door behind her, and walked upstairs to the roof level.

The rooftop area was nothing special, just smooth cement with a little table in one corner and small parapets along the edges for safety. Ichigo walked over to the front edge of the roof, overlooking the streets and houses around it. Her apartment complex was right on the edge of where the city stopped and a quaint little neighborhood began. Sitting down with the bowl of ice cream in her lap, Ichigo looked up at the stars as she ate. The night sky, even in the city, was still beautiful on clear nights. She looked at an airplane flying overhead. Smiling, she thought, 'I wonder what it would be like to be up there right now…' Noticing a star that was a bit brighter than the rest, she added 'And I wonder how Kisshu's doing…' Ichigo felt as though she was being overcome with sudden emotion. She felt a knot in her chest and her eyes felt wet.

"I miss everyone so much…even you, Kisshu…..are your people well? Are you yourself doing alright? Has life there improved for you since you left Earth with the Mew Aqua? And how are Pai and Taruto?" Ichigo realized how foolish this sounded, since she was talking to no one. "I wish I could ask you….."

Ichigo squeaked in surprise as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around her from behind. Her ears and tail popped out, unbidden as usual, and she dropped her ice cream, which fell and spilled on the ground.

Ichigo felt a voice whisper in her ear sensually, "I missed you too, Koneko-chan." Ichigo shivered and felt her eyes water even more as she heard the voice that was all too familiar, all too vivid in her thoughts.

"Ki-Kisshu?" she managed to stutter out. A chuckle could be heard from behind her.

"Correct. How have you been, Kitten?" Kisshu released Ichigo from his embrace as he turned her around to face him. Ichigo swallowed thickly. She felt as though she were about to explode and implode at the same time, for only now did she realize just how much she had missed her friends. Kisshu in particular, surprisingly.

"G-good." Was all she was able to choke out. Looking up at Kisshu, she took him by surprise as she threw her arms around him and let go of everything at once. All of her pent-up emotions since she had last seen him and the rest of her friends, happiness, sadness, anger, laughter, bitterness, disappointment, were all released as she sobbed into his chest.

Kisshu, confused by this, and not knowing what else to do, did the only thing he really could in the current situation. Which was to wrap his arms around her again and pull her to him, hold her close until all her emotion had been released. Soon enough, Ichigo's sobs wound their way down to small sniffs, and her tears no longer flowed strongly down her cheeks. Her eyes clamped shut, she still held to Kisshu.

Neither one of them kept track of how long they stayed there like that, and neither of them really cared to know. For however long it was, all that existed to one was the other.

After some time, Ichigo pulled away from Kisshu and looked at him, blushing. Her eyes were still red, but to Kisshu it just made her more beautiful. He was the first to speak.

"I see you've grown since the last time I saw you."

"I guess so." Ichigo looked at him. For the first time, she realized how firm his chest had felt under his shirt, and his midsection looked nicely toned. His arms seemed more muscled than they had before, though Lord knows they would always be skinny. And his eyes looked older and more knowledgeable, yet they still strongly held the same mischievous glint. He, too had matured since they had last met. "I see I'm not the only one."

Kisshu seemed to blush, a rare sight, as he saw her look him over. However, the change in complexion was quickly replaced by a trademark fanged smirk as he replied, "Of course, Kitten. What else would you expect from me?"

Ichigo didn't have much else she could say about that, so she said nothing.

"Where's that Romeo of yours?" He asked, his smirk never faltering. Ichigo tried to glare at him hotly, to no avail.

"He's studying abroad." Kisshu just nodded, letting his smirk fade away to a passive expression. "Now it's my turn." Ichigo continued. "How are Pai and Taruto?"

Kisshu seemed surprised that Ichigo would inquire after them, however this did not show as he answered her evenly. "They're both well. Taruto's back with more kids his own age, so now he's annoying my home with his little friends." Ichigo covered her mouth trying to muffle a laugh. Kisshu smiled as he noticed this. "Pai," he continued, "is the head of a research group that's working to find similarities between Earthly species and those on our planet, New Earth, and figure out how they have evolved or devolved since our race lived on Earth. Apparently, some of the Earth's living creatures may have inherited some hidden ability to sap pollution out of their surroundings. If so, more of our people will return here to inform humans of our findings." Ichigo nodded, a smile on her face.

"That's great! I'm glad they're doing okay!" She said enthusiastically. "And how've things been with you?"

Kisshu looked at her before answering, "Um….it's been…..complicated, I guess is the word. But nothing too much." Ichigo looked at him questioningly. Noticing this, he elaborated for her, "My people have suffered so much for so long living on New Earth, and so there's many things to be done. There's a lot of emotional issues that our people suffered, being stuck underground for so long, and constantly worrying about whether or not us and our children would be fed. We're not used to it, Ichigo. Things are very different, and we all need to adjust. And another thing," He paused and took a deep breath. "Because of how merciless the living conditions were on the surface until recently, living beings besides us are very scarce. Though we've finally been freed from our living hell after so long, on the surface we face yet another conflict: we're all hungry. There was barely enough to survive on below the surface as it was, but now that we're aboveground, there's nothing we can eat. Nothing could have survived in those harsh, unforgiving surface conditions for as long as we managed to, because we were underground."

"I see," Ichigo said, nodding slowly. Kisshu continued to look at her for a moment more, before tilting his head upward to look at the stars again.

"I feel so lucky to be here right now, and like this."

"Like how?" Ichigo asked, looking at him.

"With you." She blushed.

"But why would you find yourself lucky?" Kisshu looked at her once again. He closed his eyes.

"Well, for starters, there are much stronger warriors than me back on New Earth." Ichigo looked as though she was about to say something, but kept quiet. "So," he continued, "Even before Pai, Taruto and I departed for Earth, our capability was already being doubted. Many warriors senior to us were skeptical about our ability to take back an entire planet, even with its current inhabitants being far weaker than us. In fact, one of the only reasons Taruto and I were allowed to travel back to this planet was because Pai was going to be with us. A lot of people had far more confidence in his abilities than in mine, and they had more confidence in mine than they did in Taruto's. Which is understandable, considering he is still a kid." Kisshu paused, taking a moment to open his eyes and stare up at the starry sky. "In fact, now that I think about it, it's a miracle they let us come back here, to the place where our ancestors once stood." Closing his eyes once more, he added, "A miracle, yet such a curse at the same time."

"Why is it a curse?" Ichigo inquired, feeling the slightest bit offended. Kisshu looked at her.

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out by now." She cocked her head to the side, puzzled. He smiled softly. Or, as softly as was possible for him. Closing his eyes, he kept his smile as he answered her question simply, "You, Ichigo." Ichigo continued to look at him with a confused, still slightly offended expression.

Instead of answering her yet again, he decided that words were merely an annoying yet convenient necessity for explaining things. Cupping her face in one hand, he swiftly yet gently brought it closer and kissed her, tenderly pressing his lips to hers. Now this, emotions speak much, much louder.

As he wound his arms around Ichigo once again, he felt her trying to pull away. Confused, but not surprised, he reluctantly pulled his face away from hers and looked at her, still holding her. With and expressionless mask, he asked her, "Does that answer your question?" Ichigo just continued to stare at him as her faced turned a shade of red that put her namesake to shame. She managed to nod meekly. Kisshu sighed and looked away, releasing her. He closed his eyes and said quietly, "You see? This is why it's such a curse."

Ichigo remained silent, and Kisshu took this as a sign to continue. "I love you too much for my own good, Ichigo. I come after you, over and over again, yet no matter how many times I try, and no matter how hard, the outcome is always the same. I should have realized when I first tried that I would never succeed. I should have known. I should know. I'm playing with fire, Ichigo, and sooner or later, I'll wind up burned." He paused, sighing again. "Yet I can never give up. There's always a tiny part of me that will never let me accept reality. Back on my own planet, I could never stop thinking about you. You were always in my thoughts, a specter that constantly haunted me. I had to see you again. Even if you hated me for it, even if you still hate me, I had to. I'd die without you, Ichigo. I swear to God, you are my lifeline, the one thing truly worth living for…..." He trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Ichigo froze, feeling completely shocked. She had no idea that Kisshu had such strong feelings. For him to say that he would rather die without her…. He must have been in terrible pain when she had chosen Masaya over him. He must still be hurting, even. She looked up at him. The moonlight illuminated his already pale face, giving it a luminous glow. He looked like an angel. An angel of darkness.

Kisshu opened his eyes, still continuing to look in a different direction. Ichigo saw a single tear slip down his face. Her shock was quickly replaced with sympathy, and….what was the other feeling? Was it love? Though this greatly surprised her, she didn't let it distract her too much. Instead, she let the misplaced emotion fuel her actions as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. Gently holding him, she whispered, "I wouldn't want you to die for me."

Kisshu, surprised, returned her embrace. He whispered back, "Your life, to me, is worth far more than my own."

"But you have so much to live for!"

"Not without you. Nothing else matters to me. If restoring my race had meant having to kill you, I swear I would have rather continued to live the way we had. As long as you're alive and well, I need nothing more than that." Pulling back from Ichigo's embrace, he looked at her sweetly as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Tucking it behind her ear, he whispered to her once more, "I love you, Ichigo." Before once again kissing her softly.

Their kiss was nothing special, just a kiss. But for both, it was something they had needed since that final battle four years ago. They held to each other as though it was the last time they would ever meet, both wishing that this simple, serene moment could last forever. But all things, good or bad, must end.

Ichigo pulled away and looked at Kisshu with a loving smile on her face. This simple action filled him with happiness. For once, Ichigo was not looking at him with anger or doubt in her eyes. No, she was finally smiling at him wholeheartedly. He watched as she got up and headed towards the stairs back into the building. He was about to ask where she was going, when she looked back at him and said, "Wait right here. I'll be back in a minute." Smiling at him again, she added, "I promise." With that, she disappeared back into the complex.

Kisshu waited patiently on the roof of the building, and a few minutes later Ichigo reappeared in the doorway, holding a bag. "Sorry 'bout that!" She said as she walked back over to him, smiling apologetically. "I just remembered, I have something I wanted to give to Pai and Taruto!" Sitting down next to him, she noticed him looking at her questioningly, and she emptied the bag in an explanatory gesture. A bag of Pudding's favorite candy drops (for Taruto), and a complex scientific book (for Pai of course) came tumbling out. Looking at him as he examined the items, she said, "You can probably guess which stuff is for who."

Ichigo replaced the candy drops and book in the bag. Looking up, she noticed Kisshu staring at her intently. "What is it?" She asked.

"What, don't I get anything?" He said playfully, his trademark fanged smirk once more on his face. With an impish smile, she answered simply, "Fine," and planted a chaste kiss on his lips.

Kisshu smiled. He couldn't resist holding Ichigo again, and as she rested her head against his chest, he heard her say, "Everyone's been through so much. All of us. You, Me, Mint, Zakuro, Pudding, Lettuce, Pai Taruto, and everyone on both of our planets. And many of us have had to endure it by ourselves. But, you know what?" She paused and nestled closer to him. "It's not fair to have to go through it alone."

"Then let me help you endure it from now on." He said gently. Looking up at him, Ichigo nodded, smiling.

"Yeah. We'll make it through everything," She agreed. Both looked up at the sky. Two twin stars twinkled next to each other, brighter than all the rest.

"Together," They said in unison.

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This took me FREAKIN FOREVER to write, and I really hope you enjoyed! PLEASE R&R! As I said, REVIEWERS GET COOKIES! OR CINNAMON ROLLS OR CAKE! FRESH OUT OF THE OVEN! :3 PRESS THE BUTTON! You know you want to… :D

Ja ne!

-Sun-Chan


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